Justice Department indicts two men over REvil ransomware attacks

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced two foreign nationals have been charged for their involvement in deploying REvil ransomware attacks.

The feds also announced they have seized $6.1 million allegedly traceable to ransom payments.

The two face up to 115 and 145 years in prison, respectively. They’re charged in separate indictments with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, counts of damage to protected computers, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

“Cybercrime is a serious threat to our country: to our personal safety, to the health of our economy, and to our national security,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference. “Our message today is clear. The United States, together with our allies, will do everything in our power to identify the perpetrators of ransomware attacks, to bring them to justice, and to recover the funds they have stolen from their victims.”

Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a 22-year-old Ukrainian national, and Yevgeniy Polyanin, a 28-year-old Russian national, have been charged over the attacks.

“The arrest of Yaroslav Vasinskyi, the charges against Yevgeniy Polyanin and seizure of $6.1 million of his assets, and the arrests of two other Sodinokibi/REvil actors in Romania are the culmination of close collaboration with our international, U.S. government and especially our private sector partners,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

President Joe Biden has previously said cyber threats should be a concern for the whole country.

“When I met with President Putin in June, I made clear that the United States would take action to hold cybercriminals accountable,” Biden said in a statement. “That’s what we have done today.”

Vasinskyi was involved in REvil ransomware attacks this year, including one against Kaseya, a multinational information technology software company. Vasinskyi deployed malicious REvil code throughout one of Kaseya’s products. Through this, ransomware was deployed to Kaseya customer networks so data could be encrypted and locked until a payment was made.

 

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